Suffice to say that following England’s catastrophic demise in last year’s World Cup, any hope that any England side would win a major tournament anytime soon, all but disappeared.

As former England manager Terry Venables once famously said, “If history is going to repeat itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again.”

Yes, you heard it right. In a rare moment of clear-thought at Premier League HQ, the men in suits have finally allowed common sense to prevail, by relaxing the rules on team selection. As of the coming season, Premier League managers will be free to select their matchday squads from their registered squad of 25 players, plus under-21 ‘home-grown’ players, without restriction as to which combination of players the manager selects.

Sir Alex Ferguson is a manager revered by many as a gaffer who has stood the test of time; he has broken seemingly every managerial record going and still keeps on surprising everyone by building a new United side ever 5-6 years.

It seems like eons again now that Manchester City became the richest club in the world. It took the entire league by complete surprise when, on the final day of the 2008 summer transfer window, the club was purchased by the Abu Dhabi United group. That same day saw the club sign Robinho from Real Madrid for a then record £32.5m.

In 2009 Tevez made a shock move from the red side of Manchester to join the noisy sky blue neighbours, they paid an estimated £25.5 million to sign the Argentinean striker and since then he has become a symbol of the rise to prominence of the Citizens.

So Sunny Sarfend jetted off to Scotland on Thursday for their pre-season summer training camp at Stirling University and to take part in a mini tournament involving Dundee, Raith Rovers and East Fife.

Tactics are crucial to the game of football, as in any sport they determine strategy and prevent on-field chaos. The developments in sports science and a deeper understanding of the game over time has forced tacticians to move with the times and create new methods  in the way we play the game, just to keep up.